PALAIS COBURG RESIDENZ

Description:

• Originally built in 1846 as the outrageously elegant and ostentatious private home of the Coburg dynasty (who managed somehow to sire most of the monarchs of western Europe), this sprawling and staggeringly historic building was gutted and rebuilt during a 6-year renovation that was completed in 2006. Much of its interior had been vandalized by the Russian army after their occupation of the site after World War II. But all traces of the mundane have definitely been banished since its transformation into a multi-purpose building, only part of which is devoted to hotel accommodations.

  The full-service spa is reserved only for residents of the hotel. And then there are those suites! The smaller and less expensive are contemporary, intensely design-conscious, and very comfortable. The more expensive evoke the heyday of the Rothschilds and are posh, with many pale satin upholsteries and valuable antiques. Ironically, all this grandeur is the personal property of an (individual) Austrian investor, whose stated ambition involves the on-site compilation of the largest and most comprehensive wine collection in Europe.

• © Frommer's 2012

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Very Highly Recommended 2010